Page 2 of Bear Facts

“We’ll bring Nell,” Cormac offered. “She can scare them into hiding in their basements and never coming out.”

When Mama Grizzly decided to do battle, anyone she faced ran for the hills. Literally.

“Nah, we can handle it,” Brody said with confidence. He drained his coffee mug and slammed it, empty, to the counter. “They’re just a bunch of smelly wolves. Come on, Shane.”

Shane glanced longingly at the refrigerator, which was full of sausage and eggs waiting to be cooked, tamped down his anger, and heaved a long sigh. Breakfast, like his run, would have to wait.

“Call me if you need me,” Cormac said cheerfully as he took up the giant bowl and shoveled in the first spoonful of cereal.

Freya found the cold of Mount Charleston’s upper slopes refreshing. Here, she could almost imagine peace and safety, as when she and her twin brother, Rolf, had been cubs, blissfully ignorant of what the future would hold.

She hiked down a hill among soaring pines, her boots landing in muffled thuds on frozen pine needles and leaves. January down in the desert was a pleasant sixty-five degrees, but this elevation held freezing temps. The city in the valley teemed with crowds, while this part of the mountainside was thankfully devoid of people.

As she’d traveled south from San Francisco, through mountains and across the desert toward her destination, she’d heard there’d been more snow than usual this year. The major road up Mount Charleston had been plowed, but many side roads were shut off by drifts. Ice hung from the trees, and the entire mountainside was bathed in silence.

Freya needed this time alone with her thoughts while she pondered her intentions. She had a meeting later this morning with the person whose card she’d found among Rolf’s things. This woman might be the key to finding him or might know absolutely nothing about Rolf’s whereabouts. Either way, she had to try.

Maybe the woman had offered Rolf a place of refuge. He’d been restless lately, always worried that humans would figure out he and Freya were Shifter and turn them in to Shifter Bureau. He’d craved someplace his true nature wouldn’t hinder him, but at the same time didn’t want the two of them rounded up and herded into a Shiftertown.

It was tricky, trying to pass for humans in their world. They’d learned to assimilate, taking classes to learn various things to do with computers that would gain them employment. She thought Rolf had made his peace with their existence a while back, but her brother was always seeking a better way to live. A month ago, he thought he’d found it.

He’d told Freya this with a flash of smile in his wolf’s eyes the night they’d met for decadent deep-dish pizza at their favorite Italian place near Washington Square. This is gonna be awesome, sis.

And then he’d been gone.

Once it became clear he was actually missing, she’d checked all his favorite places to roam, like the redwood forests north of San Francisco, and found nothing. Nothing but the black card with the single phone number.

Freya hid her pain and worry as she sniffed the cold air. She’d risked coming this close to the Las Vegas Shiftertown, where she’d learned Graham’s clan had been relocated, for the chance of any information about Rolf. The choice of meeting places hadn’t been hers, but Freya had agreed.

As long as she stayed on the mountain, she’d be fine, she told herself. Shifters weren’t allowed to go far from their Shiftertowns, right?

Freya’s wolf, who sometimes had more sense than her human brain, growled a warning. She ceased her spinning thoughts to notice what her instincts were trying to tell her.

A fetid stench rode on the wind. It wasn’t strong, but when Freya gave her scent sense over to her wolf, she knew something bad was out here with her. Something savage, something not right.

Not the person she was meeting. The woman, Althea Webster, was fully human. Freya had checked on her, though obtaining the information had been almost impossible. Freya still didn’t know why Rolf had been in contact with her.

Her inner wolf told her she’d be safer right now if she shifted. Freya gave in, but not before she carefully removed her clothing and buried it with her backpack under a pile of dead leaves.

Icy wind blew down the mountain to roar through the ponderosa pines. It blended with Freya’s snarls as she struggled into her wolf form.

She landed on large gray wolf paws, shook herself out, and took off over the snowy forest floor.

Shane stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Brody as they faced a line of wolf Shifters in human form who were big, muddy, half-hungover, and belligerent.

Just what Shane needed today.

Graham McNeil, the leader of this motley bunch, was also big, muddy, and belligerent, but he was stone-cold sober. He never let himself get too drunk, knowing he had to keep half a Shiftertown of Lupines in line.

Though Graham wanted everyone to believe he led by intimidation and fear, he could be compassionate. Shane had seen that in him more than once since Graham had moved to the Vegas Shiftertown. Never tell Graham he was nice, though. He didn’t like it.

“See if you can talk sense into them,” was Graham’s greeting to Shane and Brody.

“Not negotiating with fucking bears,” one of the wolves growled.

The man shut up quickly when Graham rounded on him and pinned him with a hard stare.

“Let me put it this way,” Graham stated. “If Shane and Brody hand you guys over to me again, you’re not going to like it. My mate might need to warn me I’m getting out of line. You know that only happens when it’s truly bad. Right?”

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